HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF ENGLISH

B.A Thesis Proposal

FACTORS THAT AFFECT ACADEMIC WRITING SKILLS OF THE

FRESHMAN AT THE FACULTY OF ENGLISH IN HANOI OPEN
UNIVERSITY

NHỮNG YẾU TỐ ẢNH HƯỞNG ĐẾN KĨ NĂNG VIẾT HỌC THUẬT CỦA

SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT TẠI KHOA TIẾNG ANH TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC

MỞ HÀ NỘI

TRẦN MINH HIẾU

Date of birth: 12/12/2002

Field: English Language

Supervisor: Dr. Le Phuong Thao

Hanoi - 2021

0
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents Page number

1. Introduction 2

1.1. Rationale 2

1.2. Aim and objectives 2

1.3. Scope of the study 2

1.4. Research questions 2

1.5. Structure of the study 2

2. Literature Review 2

2.1. Review of previous studies 3

2.2. Review of theoretical background/framework 4

3. Proposed Research Methodology 4

3.1. Research type 4

3.2. Population and sample 4

3.3. Research methods 4

4. Proposed Chapter Outline 5

References 5

Appendices (optional)

Research schedule 6

1
1. Introduction

1.1. Rationale

No one can negate that academic writing is one of the hardest and most interesting skills in English. In the process of acquiring

academic writing skills, the freshman at faculty of English in Hanoi Open University may encounter a certain number of problems

that prevent them from mastering these skills. Therefore, in this research, I will find out factors and bring about some suggestion or

solutions to this problem.

1.2. Aim and objectives

1.2.1. Research aim

To improve the academic writing skills of the sophomore at the FOE, HOU
1.2.2. Research objective

+ To identify the factors that cause difficulties in academic writing skills of the sophomore at the FOE, HOU

+ To give some solutions to improve the academic writing skills of the sophomore at the FOE, HOU

1.3. Scope of the study

This essay only focuses on clarifying the problems of the freshman at FOE, HOU (2020-2024)

1.4. Research questions

This study is going to answer the following questions:

+What are the factors that cause difficulties in studying academic writing skills of the sophomore at the FOE, Hanoi Open University?

+ What are some solutions to improve the academic writing skills of the sophomore at the FOE, HOU?

1.5. Structure of the study

The study is divided into 5 chapters

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Literature review

Chapter 3: Methodology

Chapter 4: Results/Findings and discussion

Chapter 5: Conclusion

2. Literature review

2.1. Review of previous studies

2.1.1 Academic writing challenges

Writing might be an arduous skill to be mastered of taught because of the fact that it is not a simple cognitive activity, rather it is

considered to be a multiplex mental production which has a need of “careful consideration, discipline and attentiveness”. Al Fadda (2012)

discovered that the main challenges ESL experience are distinguishing the differences between written and spoken words and phrases, reviewing

grammar including subject-verb agreement combing sentences together to make a logical paragraph. That generating ideas about their topic is a

barrier prevents students from moving on in their writing (Al Murshidi, 2014). An additional concern is to read and then to write an idea in their

own words. This might bring on some mistakes in grammatical which could make students grudging to paraphrase and encapsulate other’s work

(Amin & Alamin, 2012); instead, they just copy and paste

2.1.2 Factors that causing the academic writing difficulties

2
 A list of reasons why international students encountered a bunch of stress and obstacles when writing their assignments has
been made by Chou (2011). The first reason is that students might come from dissimilar cultural background where their studying
fully depend on teachers. They also have not been instructed to be critical thinkers and they might have lower expectations than those
of their teachers since they believed themselves second language learners.

High expectations of academic writing teachers might also take for granted that students meet requirements to produce error-free
pieces of academic writing and they might also assign demanding topic that learners find it struggling to write about (A1 Murshidi,
2014). An obvious barrier that students may find is that low language expertise. Ghabool, Edwina, and Kashef (2012) shown that this
problem might be the common source of the challenge students may have in their academic writing. For example, novice writers find
it very challenging to establish an effective discussion in the target language (Shafie et al ,2010). As concluded by Al-Khairy (2013),
the participants of his study said that their main problems include grammatical errors, the unsuitable choice of vocabulary, irregular
verbs, and mistaken punctuation and spelling. Other causes that would end in the problem in academic writing are L1 interference,
inadequacy of ideas, and unobvious instructions of the task (Chou, 2011). Regarding unclearly description of the task, Chou (2011)
came to an end that the participants in his study admitted that they are too shy and unconfident to ask teachers for clarification.
Finally, Can (2009) claims that conflicting feedback provided by instructors from different departments in an establishment might
cause the shortage of students' confidence in their academic writing skills.

Studies conducted on L1 Arabic non-native speakers’ English academic writing problems have shown student texts to lack lexical
variety, subordination and to rely heavily on redundancy that does not add any new information to the text (Sa’Addedin & Akram,
1989, 1991; Zughoul & Husain,1985). Other researches have indicated problems in these students ’s academic writing in connecting
ideas over larger stretches of text (Al Abed Al-Haq & Ahmed, 1994; Dudley-Evans & Swales, 1980; Kaplan, 1966). Al Abed Al-Haq
& Ahmed (1994) showed that these texts are characteristic of writing on mechanical and sentence levels instead of on more
communicative discourse ones essential for ‘advanced’ writing. Discourse aspects that these students find difficult to deal with in their
academic texts are in the use of cohesive devices that form meaningful connections between and among sentences over larger
stretches of text such as substitution, lexical cohesion, transition, deixis and so forth. Further studies in discourse have emphasized the
necessity for students to supply certain sorts of texts or genres required by the various disciplines within the academic community,
like summaries, reports, research papers and therefore the like, which the non-native speaker of English finds difficult to produce.

2.2 Review of theoretical background/framework

2.2.1 What is writing

Writing skills are specifics abilities which help writers put their thoughts

into words in a meaningful form and to mentally interact with the message. Writing is an integral part of a larger activity where the focus is on

something else such as language practice, acting out or speaking

2.2.2 What is academic writing

Academic writing is a formal style of writing used in universities and scholarly publications. You’ll encounter it in journal articles and books on

academic topics, and you’ll be expected to write your essays, research papers, and dissertation in academic style. Academic writing follows the

same writing process as other types of texts, but it has specific conventions in terms of content, structure and style.

3. Proposed Research Methodology

3.1 Research type

In this study, I will carry it out with quantitative research and collect primary data to analyze

3
3.2 Population and sample

The population of this research is 20 random freshmen of the FOE, HOU (2020-2024) and I will select random sample.

3.3 Research methods

The process of collecting data through surveys. I will design a form with some multi-choice questions and send to them through

email or social media.

4. Proposed chapter outline

Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1. Rationale

1.2. Aim and objectives of the study

1.3. Scope of the study

1.4. Research questions

1.5. Methods of the study

1.6. Structure of the study

Chapter 2: Literature review

2.1. Review of previous studies

2.1.1 Academic writing challenges

2.1.2 Factors that cause academic writing difficulties

2.2. Review of theoretical background/frameworks

2.2.1 What is writing

2.2.2 What is academic writing

Chapter 3: Methodology

3.1 Research type

3.2 Population and sample
3.3 Research methods
Chapter 4: Results/Findings and discussion

4.1. Results/Findings

4.1.1……………………

4.1.2…………………………

4.2. Discussion

4.2.1……………………...

4.2.2…………………...

Chapter 5: Conclusion

References

1. Al Murshidi, G. (2014). UAE university male students' interest impact on reading and writing performance and improve-

ment. English Language Teaching, 7(9), 57-63.

4
2. Amin, S., & Alamin, A. (2012). Skills and strategies used in the comprehension and production of academic writing in Taif
University. English Language and Literature studies, 2(3), 135-139.
3. Al Fadda, H. (2012). Difficulties in academic writing: From the perspective of King Saud university postgraduate stu-
dents. English Language Teaching, 5(3), 123-130.
4. Can, G. (2009). A model for doctoral students’ perceptions and attitudes toward written feedback for academic writing
(Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Utah State University
5. Chou, L. (2011). An investigation of Taiwanese doctoral students' academic writing at a U.S. University. Higher Educa-
tion Studies, 1(2), 47-60.
6. Crosby, C. (2009). Academic reading and writing difficulties and strategic knowledge generation 1.5 learners. In M.
Roberge, M. Siegal, & L. Harklau (Eds.), Generation 1.5 in college composition: Teaching academic writing to dU.S-educated learn-
ers of ESL (pp. 105-119). New York, NY: Routledge.
7. Ghabool, N., Edwina, M., & Kashef, H. S. (2012). Investigating malaysian ESL students ‘writing problems on conven-
tions, punctuation, and language use at secondary level. Journal of Studies in Education, 2(3), 131- 143.
8. Gordon, L. (2008). Writing and good language learners. In C. Griffiths (Ed.), Lessons from good language learners (pp.
244-254). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
9. Muluneh, T. K. (2018). Improving students’ paragraph writing skill through task-bamiased approach. Arts and Social Sci-
ences Journal, 9(3), 1-4.
10. Johari, S. K. (2018). The Effects of Task-Based Process Writing Approach on the Academic Writing Skills among Second
Language Tertiary Learners. Journal of ELT Research: The Academic Journal of Studies in English Language Teaching and Learn-
ing, 1-20.

Research Schedule

Research phase Objectives Deadline

1. Background research and literature ● Meet with supervisor for initial discussion 30
th
October,

review ● Conduct a more extensive review of relevant literature 2021

● Refine the research questions

● Develop a theoretical framework

2. Research design planning ● Design questionnaires 12

th

● Identify online and offline channels for recruiting November,2021

participants

● Finalize sampling methods and data analysis methods

5
3. Data collection and preparation ● Recruit participants and send out questionnaires 20
th

● Conduct semi-structured interviews with selected December,2021

participants

● Transcribe and code interviews and clean survey data

4. Data analysis ● Statistically analyze survey data

th
5 January, 2022

● Conduct thematic analysis of interview transcripts

● Draft the results and discussion chapters

5. Writing ● Complete a full thesis draft 15

th
February,

● Meet with supervisor to discuss feedback and revisions 2022

6. Revision ● Redraft based on feedback 20

th
April, 2022

● Get supervisor approal for final draft

● Proofread

● Print, bind and submit